CENTERVILLE – City officials are getting home builders to help pay for expansion of the city’s water system.

The Centerville City Council approved a 69 percent hike in their water impact fees, which are paid only when a new home or business is built. The fees are expected to help with the cost of a new well that has just been dug, a pump station planned for next year, and more.

“If the city didn’t raise impact fees, that cost would have to be paid by the current water users,” said Centerville City Manager Steve Thacker. “We want future users to have to pay their fare share.”

For the water connection in an average home, made up of a three-quarter-inch pipe, the impact fees will jump from $1200 to $2027. Ward buildings for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints normally use a two-inch connection, and the fee for that will jump from $12,000 to $20,270. The charges come from the amount of water flowing through the connection.

All other connections will see proportionate increases. The new water rates are expected to go into effect Nov. 4.

According to Thacker, the city’s water impact fees were last updated in the mid-1990s, years before the major development hike in the Parrish Lane area. The water impact fees will also pay for a water main under the freeway, which is expected to serve future development on the west side.

City officials project that they will connect the equivalent of 1,046 three-quarter-inch connections over the next six years. If those projections hold, the city will bring in an extra $866,000 thanks to the impact fee increase.

“There might not be that many users, but some of them will have larger connections,” said Thacker. “It would be the same amount of water.”